Entertainment

LIVE: Twitter's Big Announcement

Twitter is about to make the biggest change to its interface in years when it adds photos and videos in the stream. What will it look like? Will it be a game-changer, or will Twitter's users revolt? Does Twitter have a few surprise announcements prepared?

We're live here at Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco to find out. Twitter HQ is electric with energy, and it feels like Twitter's got even more up its sleeve than has been leaked so far. Representatives of partners like Ustream and Justin.tv are also here, stirring even more speculation.

Here are my live notes:

LIVE

All times are in Pacific Standard Time.

3:59 p.m.: We are seated in Twitter's main cafeteria as we wait for Twitter's program to begin. Twitter's Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jason Goldman and Kevin Cheng are all speaking.

4:03: Only a few minutes until we start. They're serving the press and Twitter's employees beer, cheese, crackers, chips and salsa. Yum.

4:04: Twitter CEO Evan Williams just tweeted the following: "I'm about to send 10 tweets about Twitter." Something to watch.

4:05: Biz and Ev are now on stage.

4:05: "Thank you for being here on such short notice." - Biz

4:07: Evan is now speaking. Before the big announcement, he's starting with the context and what's been happening up until now.

4:08: First "tweet" from Biz Stone: "Twitter is getting better — and bigger."

4:10: Twitter mobile usage up 250% this year. Twitter is seeing a massive increase in signups — 370,000 new signups per day, in fact.

4:11: Twitter is a real-time information network. Twitter levels the playing field between creators and consumers of content.

4:13: Twitter just changed the default profile picture from a bird to an egg.

4:16: One of our big challenges is helping users find the stuff that is relevant to them. It was hard to find out who to follow.

4:17: You don't need to tweet to get value, but a lot of people are tweeting. Nearly 100 million tweets per day.

4:18: Tweet #8: "Infrastructure and performance are our biggest investment. They provide the foundation for new things."

4:19: Twitter.com is the biggest Twitter client. 78% log into Twitter.com on a monthly basis.

4:20: Announcement: Today we're launching a new Twitter.com — faster, easier, richer. Ev is playing a video to help explain/promote it. It shows pictures in the stream. You can click on a tweet and pull up more information on a person, on a n image, on a tweet, etc. YouTube videos are supported.

4:21: It looks like the panel approach of the iPad app. Clicking on a tweet brings up information, like the timeline, maps, local tweets, etc. on the right-hand side.

4:24: The mini-profile has arrived. You can bring up information on a user in the timeline, follow users, etc.

4:26: New profile page. Keep the basic aspects, but increase the prominence of the bio, drill down into tweets (the side panes) and jump around more quickly and easily.

4:29: No more "more" button for tweets. Endless line of tweets.

Q&A

Q: Who are the partners? What are the terms of the deal?A: Vimeo, Ustream, TwitpIc, Flickr, Justin.tv and others.

Q: When does the site go live for everybody? A: No firm time frame, it's just based on user feedback.

Q: Lists? What's changing with them?A: Lists are more prominently placed, more integrated into the system. Now you can pull up lists in panes and execute actions much easier.

Q: Developers? What do they get access to?A: Goldman: Completely new architecture for our client. Built on our APIs.

Q: How did testing go? Was it tested externally?A: May or June, had weekly user tests, radically changing it at times based on that feedback.

Q: Just asked a question on iPad app's influence and the influence of Loren, the creator of Tweetie, on this projectA: There's a shared thinking, but different methods in the creation of the new Twitter.com

Q: Monetization focus?A: This makes Twitter better, and tweets better and more more engaging. Advertisers haven't seen this until now.

Q: Multiple accounts?A: Not supported.

Q: What's the new Twitter's affect on the load?A: Our primary concern is keeping the site stable. We have more than enough team members to work on it and on the new design. New platform is more stable and relies on APIs, so it will require less of Twitter's infrastructure.

Q: Changes to Twitter Search?A: Twitter Search now appears on the top of Twitter.com. Search experience is much more integrated and saving searches and managing them is much more integrated as well.

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